Politics in Europe > The games the French government plays to keep the National Rally on the ropes; Raid on RN a fishing trip for Macron

 

ECHR rejects Le Pen’s bid to suspend

election ban

The right-wing French politician has been barred

from the 2027 presidential race

French politician Marine Le Pen at a campaign event in Paris on April 6, 2025. ©  Adnan Farzat / NurPhoto / Getty Images

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has rejected veteran right-wing French politician Marine Le Pen’s request to suspend a five-year ban on her standing in elections, including the 2027 presidential race, which stems from an embezzlement conviction.

“In any event, the existence of an imminent risk of irreparable harm to a right protected by the Convention or its protocols has not been established,” the court wrote in its press release on Wednesday.

In March 2025, a French judge found the former leader of the biggest opposition party, National Rally (RN), guilty of misusing public funds intended for assistants to the RN members of the European Parliament; they were instead used to pay staff in France. Le Pen has denied any wrongdoing and appealed the verdict, which she calls politically motivated.

Read more

 French investigators raid HQ of biggest opposition party

Le Pen ran for president in 2017 and 2022, losing both times in a runoff to President Emmanuel Macron. The National Rally is currently the third-largest party in the National Assembly.

On Wednesday, police raided RN headquarters in Paris as part of an investigation into alleged campaign finance violations and fraud. RN leader Jordan Bardella denounced the searches as an attempt to “destabilize the party and drive it into financial ruin.”

US President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance have publicly voiced support for Le Pen, which the French authorities dismissed as meddling in domestic affairs.

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French authorities raid National Rally HQ over alleged finance crimes

By Ian Stark

   

Jordan Bardella, president of the French National Rally Party, said its offices had been raided by French authorities. File Photo by Maya Vidon-White/UPI | License Photo

July 9 (UPI) -- French law enforcement conducted a raid Wednesday on the headquarters of the National Rally Party as part of an ongoing investigation into possible financial crimes.

National Rally President Jordan Bardella said on X Wednesday that "about 20 financial brigade police officers, armed and wearing bulletproof vests, accompanied by two investigating judges," arrived at RN HQ at around 2:50 a.m. EDT and ostensibly seized "all emails, documents, and accounting records of the leading opposition party."

2:50 a.m. EDT is 8:50 a.m. European Summer Time

He further claimed his group wasn't informed about what led to the seizure.

"This operation, spectacular and unprecedented, is clearly part of a new harassment campaign," Bardella said. "It is a serious attack on pluralism and democratic alternation."

The Parisian prosecutor's office has explained the investigation is intended to determine if the National Rally in any way financed its campaigns through illegal loans between 2020 and 2024.

So, it's basically a fishing trip by the government. More political games to destroy the opposition.

No one has been charged in connection to the Wednesday raid but does come about three months after former RN leader Marine Le Pen was found guilty of misusing European Parliament monies and sent to prison.

"Suspecting our activists," said Bardella in a follow-up X post Wednesday, "who lend to the RN due to the lack of banks willing to do so, of 'illegally practicing the profession of banker' is a farce."

He went on to allege that the RN headquarters raid was a political stunt.

"Nothing to do with justice, everything to do with politics," he concluded.

That's how it's been from the beginning, Jordan. The corrupt use of the justice system against democracy.

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Corruption is Everywhere > Erdogan arrests members of the secular parliamentary party

 

Turkey detains three more mayors as part of

crackdown on opposition

Asia / Pacific

Turkey on Saturday arrested three more opposition mayors as part of an investigation into alleged corruption in what the main opposition CHP party called a "political operation". The arrests come after more than 120 city hall officials in the city of Izmir were arrested earlier this week and Istanbul's powerful opposition mayor Ekrem Imamoglu was removed from his post in March.

Turkey arrested three more opposition mayors early on Saturday as part of an investigation into alleged graft, officials from the main opposition CHP said, denouncing it as a "political operation".

The early morning arrests were the latest move targeting elected officials of the Republican People's Party (CHP) as the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan puts increasing pressure on the party which won a huge victory against his AKP in the 2024 local elections and is rising in the polls.

The arrests were linked to an investigation into alleged graft which resulted in the removal in March of Istanbul's powerful opposition mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, whose jailing sparked mass protests in Turkey's worst street unrest since 2013. 

Imamoglu is Erdogan's biggest political rival and the CHP's candidate for the 2028 presidential race. 

The CHP - The Republican People's Party is a Kemalist and social democratic political party in Turkey. It is the oldest political party in Turkey, founded by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the first president and founder of the modern Republic of Turkey. - Wikipedia.

Democracy is interfering with Erdogan's plan to reestablish the Ottoman Empire with himself as Caliph.

Earlier this week, police arrested more than 120 people as part of a probe into alleged graft in the opposition stronghold of Izmir, Turkey's third city. 

Read moreTurkey arrests more than 120 city hall members in opposition stronghold Izmir

The latest detainees were based in southern Turkey: mayor of the southern city of Adana, Zeydan Karalar, mayor of the resort town of Antalya, Muhittin Bocek, and the mayor of Adiyaman in the southeast, Abdurrahman Tutdere. 

"In a system where the law bends and sways according to politics, where justice is applied for one group and ignored for another, no one should expect us to trust in the rule of law or believe in justice," wrote Mansur Yavas on X, opposition mayor of Ankara, Turkey's capital. 

"We will not bow to injustice, lawlessness, or political operations."

The pro-Kurdish DEM party, the third largest in Turkey's parliament, also denounced the arrests in a strongly-worded statement. 

'Stop persecuting elected officials'

"This persecution of elected officials must stop," wrote DEM co-president Tulay Hatimogullari on X.

"Not respecting the decisions of the people at the ballot box and not recognising the will of the people is causing deep rifts within society," she wrote.

"These operations are not a solution, but block the road to a democratic Turkey."

DEM has in recent months been working closely with Erdogan's government to facilitate moves to end the decades-long conflict with the Kurds, facilitating talks which in May saw Kurdish PKK militants ending their bloody armed struggle in a conflict that cost nearly 40,000 lives. 

Read morePKK leader accuses Turkish government of 'seeking to sabotage' disarmament process

Saturday's arrests were the latest in a slew of legal manoeuvres targeting the CHP. 

On Monday, an Ankara court began hearing a case against the party involving allegations of vote-buying at its 2023 leadership primary which could end up overturning the election of CHP's popular leader Ozgur Ozel, who rose to prominence for his role in leading the March protests. 

Anadolu news agency said the Adana and Adiyaman mayors were linked to a case opened by the Istanbul public prosecutors office into alleged tender rigging and bribery. 

Police also arrested the deputy mayor of Istanbul's Buyukcekmece district Ahmet Sahin as part of the same probe, BirGun news website said. 

Antalya's mayor was held over a separate investigation launched by the resort town's chief public prosecutor into allegations of bribery, with police also arresting his son, it said.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

Politics in Europe > Hungary and Slovakia fight the EU's insane energy policy; AfD appealing extremist designation - democracy under attack; X fights block order from Turkey

 

‘Absolute insanity’ – Hungary slams EU plan to halt Russian energy imports

The European Commission has announced plans to eliminate the purchase of gas, nuclear fuel, and oil from Russia by the end of 2027

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto. © Global Look Press / Mohammad Abu Ghosh

The European Commission’s plan to completely phase out Russian fuel imports violates the sovereignty of EU member states by depriving them of the right to choose their energy sources, according to Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto.

Brussels has outlined plans to end the bloc’s energy reliance on Moscow by completely eliminating imports of oil, gas, and nuclear fuel in the coming years.

Hungary obtains over 80% of its gas from Russia via pipeline, with LNG playing a supplementary role. Budapest has continued to strengthen its energy ties with Moscow despite the sanctions introduced by the EU in the wake of the Ukraine conflict.

“The forced, artificially ideological-based exclusion of natural gas, crude oil, and nuclear fuel originating from Russia will lead to severe price increases in Europe, seriously harming the sovereignty of European countries, and cause major difficulties for European companies,” Szijjarto said in a video he shared on his Facebook page on Tuesday, adding that “what was announced is absolute insanity.”

It will also put Europe's energy needs at the mercy of Americans, and Americans don't appear to be too merciful with a commercially-focused President.

READ MORE: Hungary secures Russian sanctions exemption from US

“Everyone in Brussels has lost their common sense,” the foreign minister exclaimed, emphasizing that Budapest would not allow the European Commission (EC) to violate Hungary’s sovereignty and would “uphold the right to source energy from where it reliably arrives and where it arrives at a low cost.”

Earlier in the day, the EC published a “roadmap” outlining its ambitious strategy to end reliance on Russian energy by the end of 2027. The bloc’s executive branch said it would propose legislation in June requiring all member states to draft “national plans” to terminate their imports of Russian gas, nuclear fuel, and oil.

Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico also criticized the plan, calling the proposal “economic suicide.” He added that Slovakia would push for changes in the legislative process.

Brussels announced its intention to wean EU members off Russian energy shortly after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022. Supplies of US liquefied natural gas (LNG) have since replaced much of the cheaper pipeline gas previously delivered by Russia.

Although Russian pipeline gas supplies to the EU have plummeted, the bloc has been increasing its imports of LNG from the sanction-hit nation. Last year, Russia still accounted for around 19% of the EU’s total gas and LNG supply, according to the EC.

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German intelligence service pauses AfD extremist designation pending court decision

By Doug Cunningham

Germany's intelligence service Thursday temporarily paused its extremist designation of the far-right AfD party pending a court decision on an AfD legal appeal. The designation was made May 2. Protesters shown at anti-AfD rally Munich, March 6, 2020. File Photo by Lukas Barth-Tuttas/ EPA-EFE

May 8 (UPI) -- Germany's intelligence service Thursday paused its extremist designation of the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, party pending a court decision on an AfD legal appeal.

The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution declared the temporary suspension of the extremist designation in a Cologne administrative court.

"The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution today declared in the court proceedings -- without recognizing any legal obligation -- that it would provisionally suspend the classification of the AfD as a 'confirmed right-wing extremist movement' until the court has ruled on the urgent application," the office said.

The intelligence agency used a standstill agreement to suspend the designation until a court decision in the AfD appeal.

AfD has failed in two other legal attempts to fight the designation.

AfD leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla said on X that the pause of the designation is a "partial success" for the party.

The extremist designation was announced May 2 based on a 1,000 page report that included evidence the AfD was working against Germany's democratic system.

Is this what I call Satanic Reversal - when you accuse your opponent of doing the very thing that you are doing? 

Democracy is under attack in Germany, but is it by the AfD or the other parties who want to block the AfD from running in the next election, which it would likely win? This is Romania revisited! All right-wing parties in Europe are under threat as democracy crumbles on the continent.

The FOPC said in a statement at the time that AfD is "incompatible with the free democratic order."

It was the first time that a political party with full Bundestag representation had been designated as an extremist organization.

The AfD holds 152 of the 630 Bundestag seats.

The designation empowered the intelligence agency, subject to judicial approval, to intensify AfD surveillance.

Turkey is not in Europe but is ever so close. And, they are going through the same attack on democracy as a few European countries are.

Turkey blocks arrested opposition leader Ekrem Imamoglu's X account

X has filed a court challenge to the government-ordered block.

By Doug Cunningham

Turkey Thursday ordered X to restrict access to the account of jailed political opposition leader and Mayor of Istanbul Ekrem Imamoglu. File Photo by Tolga Bozoglu/ EPA-EFE

May 8 (UPI) -- Turkey Thursday ordered X to restrict access to the account of jailed political opposition leader and Mayor of Istanbul Ekrem Imamoglu.

X's Global Government Affairs team said in a statement that it is complying with Turkey's order to block Imamoglu's account but will challenge it.

"We strongly disagree with the order and are challenging the order in court. The order was received from the Turkish Information and Communication Technologies Authority. These orders require X to block content in Turkey that is available in the rest of the world," it said.

A post on Imamoglu's X account Thursday said it was blocked by a legal demand.

Related

• Trials start for 189 arrested for protesting the government in Turkey
• Protests to support jailed Istanbul mayor attract 2 million people
• Turkey arrests jailed opposition leader Imamoglu's lawyer

According to the BBC, a lawyer representing X has filed a court challenge to the block order.

Imamoglu's Republican People's Party told the BBC that the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's is taking another step in a coup attempt.

"Now they won't even allow him to speak to the public," said CHP Secretary General Selin Sayek Boke. "It clearly shows the fear of those in power that they will be losing power. It's a coup attempt against the next ballot box."

Opinion polls show Imamoglu would win an election if allowed to run in 2028.

X said defying the order to block Imamoglu's account could lead to Turkey banning X entirely from the country.

"X complied with the court order while we challenge the order in court because we believe keeping the platform accessible in Turkey is vital to supporting freedom of expression and access to information, particularly following natural disasters and other emergencies," the statement said.

When Imamoglu was taken into custody March 19, he said, "I'm sorry to say, a handful of minds trying to usurp the will of our nation have used my beloved police officers, the security forces of this country, as instruments of evil, and have gathered hundreds of police officers at the door of my home, the home of 16 million Istanbulites."

Imamoglu was formally arrested on corruption charges and removed from office in March, sparking thousands of people who believe his arrest is politically motivated to protest.

He denies committing crimes and had been urging his supporters to protest.

For people using VPNs Imamoglu's X account in Turkey is still accessible.